LAST WEEK TONIGHT WITH JOHN OLIVER
Welcome to "Last Week Tonight!"
I'm John Oliver, thank you so much for joining us.
We are back, and we have missed a lot,
from Steve Bannon being charged with money-laundering,
to Pakistan suffering massive flooding, to the president of Chile
speaking on the day his country rejected a new constitution,
and being undermined by an unexpected guest.
The role that I will play as president of the republic in our government,
and which we are going to commit ourselves together with all of you
is to define ourselves as a country, to advance justice and equality,
and to advance greater development and growth for all of us.
And know that this historic moment
will surely remain in our memories for a long time to come.
They're watching us from all over the world.
They sure are! Maybe not for the exact reasons that you were hoping for there.
Quick tip for any world leaders:
if you want people to focus on what you're saying,
do try not to say it next to a bicycle-riding, fun-sized Superman
having the time of his fucking life.
But obviously, we need to start with the U.K.,
which is clearly still reeling from the shocking death
of a 96-year-old woman from natural causes.
It is a big moment, which, for some reason,
absolutely everyone felt that they had to weigh in on,
from Crazy Frog, which Tweeted out, "R.I.P. the Queen, candle emoji",
a Tweet that's impossible to read without mentally adding…
To Domino's U.K., which posted,
"Everyone at Domino's joins the nation and the world
in mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
Our thoughts and condolences are with the royal family."
Which I guess is nice, although if "the world" is mourning,
they should maybe tell the U.S. Domino's account,
whose most recent Tweet, as of this taping, is,
"If ur reading this it means u need pizza. Like to confirm."
Get your fucking house in order, Domino's!
A lady is dead!
But the Queen's death is sadly not the only traumatic event
that Britain has had to deal with this week.
Because on Tuesday, Liz Truss, basically, Margaret Thatcher
if she were high on glue, became its new prime minister.
When we were covering the battle to replace Boris Johnson a few weeks ago,
we introduced you to this iconic moment.
In December, I'll be in Beijing, opening up new pork markets!
Excellent.
I genuinely don't think she could have gotten a more tepid response
to, "I'll be opening up new pork markets",
if that audience was literally full of pigs.
And if you think she learned anything after that
about the danger of holding for applause after making a ludicrous statement,
just watch the speech that she gave to her party on Monday,
where she tried to pay tribute to her predecessor.
Boris, you got Brexit done.
You crushed Jeremy Corbyn.
You rolled out the vaccine, and you stood up to Vladimir Putin.
You are admired from Kiev to Carlisle.
Okay, a couple of things there. First, the U.K. goes above Carlisle.
That's an admission that everyone north of this point fucking hates Boris,
which is not untrue.
And praising Boris Johnson isn't how you get an audience to love you.
As we all now know, the way to do that
is to have a Chilean child Superman ride around you.
That's the only way to distract people from the stupidity of what you said.
Liz Truss is now facing a multitude of problems,
with the most pressing being the fact that,
due to factors like Covid and Russia's war in Ukraine,
British "households face an 80% increase
on their energy bills starting next month."
Which is clearly terrifying, and somehow made even grimmer
by how one daytime show tried to deal with it.
How are your energy bills? Are you a bit worried about it all?
- Major. - Yeah.
I've got one of these prepayment meters and it's absolutely murder.
- God! - Let's hope it lands on one of those.
You're going to win some money, so don't worry, here we go.
1 000 pounds or energy bill, 1 000 pounds or energy bill.
It is going to be…
It's your energy bill!
My god. Thank you!
We're paying your energy bill for four months.
- Fantastic! - No worries.
That is so bleak!
For those of you who are not familiar with British TV,
that's from a program called "Orwellian Nightmare Doom Spiral This Morning".
Truss has now proposed limiting energy prices,
which could cost the government more than 100 billion pounds.
Many have suggested that, rather than passing that cost along to taxpayers,
some of it should be recouped through a new so-called "windfall tax"
on oil and gas companies, who have made huge profits
during the price spike for doing absolutely nothing.
But Truss has no interest in doing that.
One thing I absolutely don't support is a windfall tax.
I think it's a Labor idea. It's all about bashing business,
and it sends the wrong message
to international investors and to the public.
I don't think profit is a dirty word,
and the fact it's become a dirty word in our society
is a massive problem because there are, you know,
in this audience today, we have hundreds of people
who run businesses and make a profit and I think that's a good thing.
What the fuck are you talking about?
I'm going to say this, and you may not like it,
but it doesn't make it any less true,
the nicest thing the Queen of England ever did for anyone
was die the week that woman became prime minister.
Because for at least a week, she's not going to be
getting justifiably destroyed for answers like that.
Things are pretty bleak in the U.K. right now.
This fucking guy is about to be on all the money,
and morning TV is now basically "The Hunger Games",
but don't worry, Britain, your future is securely in the hands
of Dollar Store British Leslie Knope here.
Everything's gonna be fine. And now, this!
And Now…
Sean Hannity Does the Opposite of an Ad for Walmart.
They're all aligned, and have been for 4 years, against President Trump,
and we, the smelly Walmart shoppers that support him.
They also hate we the people, we smelly Walmart shoppers.
We, the smelly Walmart shoppers, irredeemable deplorables.
They know better than we, the smelly Walmart people.
Trump voters were smelly Walmart people.
And after all, we're just a bunch of smelly Walmart voters,
what do we know?
We're smelly Walmart shoppers.
By the way, guilty, I go to Walmart.
I confess, I like to shop at Walmart.
I like Walmart. Maybe he probably shops at Walmart like me
smelly Walmart shopper.
And I like to shop at Walmart, too.
Joe Biden is doing every single thing right,
and everybody else is a bunch of Nazis
and fascists and jerks that suck.
We shop at Walmart.
Turn around and tell everybody, Sean Hannity said
you're smelly Walmart shoppers and irredeemable deplorables.
That loves God.
Sean Hannity says you're smelly Walmart people
that are deplorables and love God.
We're proud of it!
They say they're proud of it, Sean!
Moving on.
For our main story tonight, we're going to do something a little different,
and talk about another TV show.
Specifically, "Law & Order", the wildly popular franchise
that's been on TV for decades, treating us to incredible dialogue.
Do you think that there was a reason
that the killer sodomized your husband with a banana?
Now that is acting right there.
Even if I wasn't listening to the words coming out of Mariska Hargitay's mouth,
I would know, based on her delivery alone,
that the killer had sodomized this person's husband with a banana,
and that she was simply trying to figure out why.
Now, it turns out, the victim's wife actually answered that question.
And think of the funniest possible response.
You're wrong, it's this.
Do you think that there was a reason
that the killer sodomized your husband with a banana?
He was allergic to bananas.
Excellent.
I simply love the idea of a killer asking,
"Before I murder and sodomize you, I've got just one question:
do you have any allergies I should be aware of?"
That exchange is just one of the reasons why "Law & Order"
is the king of cop shows.
Between all its various spinoffs, there are over 1,200 episodes of it.
It's been around for so long, it is genuinely hard to think
of an actor who hasn't appeared on it at some point,
because it's featured everyone from Chevy Chase to Samuel L. Jackson
to Philip Seymour Hoffman to Angela Lansbury
appearing with her lawyer, Bradley Cooper,
to Adam Driver, who's on series 13 episode 11 of SVU,
for approximately three minutes and 32 seconds of screen time,
if you're the kind of person who counts that sort of thing.
Even politicians have been on it,
like Rudy Giuliani, Mike Bloomberg, and Joe Biden,
all of whom guest-starred as themselves.
Which is a little weird.
Although it would clearly be weirder if Biden appeared as someone else,
like a Times Square Ninja Turtle who stumbled across a grisly murder victim
suffering from bananaphylactic shock.
"Law & Order" is on all the time, and for many, it is comfort TV.
But it, and shows like it, have a real impact.
One study found "viewers of crime dramas
are more likely to believe the police are successful at lowering crime",
"use force only when necessary, and that misconduct
does not typically lead to false confessions."
Which would be great if it were true,
but if you're watching this show, you probably know it is not.
And "Law & Order" in particular has become an American institution,
with huge cultural influence.
Some have argued its formula
shaped a generation's understanding of the legal system.
You've probably seen people using it as a go-to reference point, like this.
I'm not an attorney, I watch "Law & Order" from time to time.
My legal experience is watching like, "Law & Order" and "Law & Order: SVU".
I think the average viewer of "Law & Order"
probably knows that you're not supposed to do this.
I went to a great law school, but most of what I do on a day-to-day basis
is based off of what I learned on "Law & Order".
I'm not saying that there is nothing you can learn from "Law & Order".
I've learned a ton from Ice-T's Twitter feed alone,
where he drops truth bombs like, "A real nut feels like
every bone in your body comes out the head of your dick.
Say no more. I'm done. Fall asleep in two minutes."
The man is a truth teller.
If you can't handle the ice, stay out of the freezer.
It can be genuinely alarming just how seriously some people take the show.
Just listen to Warren Leight,
"Law & Order: SVU"'s former longtime showrunner,
talk about an unexpected group of viewers that he learned about.
We've also found out over time,
and this is a little anxiety-provoking for me,
that a lot of cops aren't trained in how to…
how to do their job in certain cases of sexual assault.
And a lot of cops get a lot of their information from watching "SVU",
which, a lot of police departments don't have the time or the money
to put people through formal training.
Yeah, that's not great, is it?
Nobody should be learning how to do their job from a TV show.
Unless, of course, your job happens to be telling jokes
to mask your deep-seated feelings of emptiness and existential dread,
in which case: keep watching, you might pick up some tips!
So, if "Law & Order" is being co-signed by elected leaders,
and everyone from TV pundits to actual cops
are using it to learn about law enforcement,
we'd take a look at what this franchise has actually been teaching us.
Let's start with the fact that the line between cop shows and actual cops
has always been deliberately blurry.
In fact, the first smash hit cop show, "Dragnet",
which debuted on TV in 1951,
made a big selling point of its authenticity,
right from the start of each episode.
Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to see is true.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The surprising thing for me is that it starts with "ladies and gentlemen",
as that sounds like the sort of voice that would say,
"Letting your wife watch television could give her notions".
But that claim of verisimilitude came at a price.
"Dragnet"'s star and creator, Jack Webb,
"agreed that scripts would be formally approved
by the LAPD's Public Information Division",
and in return, the show could shoot wherever they wanted,
have cops for extras, and use police vehicles and equipment.
Which was a pretty good deal for both sides.
The show got a patina of authenticity,
and the LAPD got a flattering portrayal which it frankly needed,
given that, right after "Dragnet" premiered,
approximately 50 LAPD officers
brutally beat seven men in their custody for over an hour,
leaving them "hospitalized with broken bones and ruptured organs"
in an incident that later become known as "Bloody Christmas".
So, if "Dragnet" really wanted to be authentic,
every episode should probably have started like this.
Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to see is bullshit.
The names have been changed to protect the LAPD
because they helped us save a bunch of money on props.
"Dragnet" had a big impact on viewers at the time,
including one particular little boy,
who later reminisced about being five or six years old,
and allowed to stay up late because "Dragnet" was on.
That boy eventually grew up to become such a household name,
someone once did this to their own body.
Here it is, the words, "Executive Producer: Dick Wolf".
- On his lower back. - Yes.
The man says he got it because he's obsessed with "Law & Order".
Yeah. A Dick Wolf tattoo.
That is real star power, especially for an executive producer.
Perhaps that is why Ice-T himself once simply Tweeted,
"Dick Wolf", and it got 108 likes.
Dick Wolf is one of those names, like Steve Madden or Charles Schwab,
that you see all the time,
even if you have no idea what Dick Wolf himself actually looks like.
Case in point: that is not Dick Wolf, that's Charles Schwab,
this is Dick Wolf.
Except it isn't, that's Steve Madden. This is Dick Wolf…
is what I would say if that was Dick Wolf,
but it's a stock image that came up when we searched "business grandpa".
This, I promise, is the real Dick Wolf.
And Dick Wolf was the six-year-old "Dragnet" superfan
who then grew up to create "Law & Order".
And interestingly, he started out in advertising,
where among other things,
he helped create this wildly sexist ad campaign for National Airlines.
I'm Judy, and I was born to fly.
Fly me to Houston.
National has nonstop DC-10s every day,
or fly me to New Orleans on the only DC-10s.
You can fly me morning, afternoon, or night.
Just say when.
I'm Judy, and I was born to fly. Fly me.
Fly Judy. Fly National.
Holy shit.
I can only imagine the target demo of that were men aged 18 to 40
who live by the motto, "Can't fuck it? Don't want it".
The whole "fly me" campaign was a big, big success,
and Dick Wolf later bragged about it
to the least appropriate person imaginable.
You were in advertising before as a writer.
As a writer-producer, I made commercials.
What were some of the commercials? Would people recognize them today?
Sure. "I'm Cheryl, fly me".
Today, it's sexual harassment, it's immediately going to prison.
Seven years.
Interestingly enough, it was one of the most successful airline campaigns ever.
- 'Cause it was aimed at the… - I'm Cheryl, fly me.
It was aimed at businessmen, and all the stewardesses
were from the University of Florida and were 22 years old.
That's why they flew the airline.
I'm surprised that didn't end your career.
If you've out-misogynied Roger Ailes,
the man best known for sexually harassing so hard he died,
you know you've made an outrageously wrong turn.
It's like someone saying, "You look lost",
and it turning out that that someone was Amelia Earhart.
You're in big fucking trouble.
Now, after leaving advertising, Wolf worked on cop shows
like "Hill Street Blues" and "Miami Vice",
and in 1990, he had his monster hit, "Law & Order",
which he even gave his own version of the "Dragnet" preamble,
one that I'm guessing you can basically recite by heart,
'cause you know how it goes.
In the criminal justice system, the people are represented
by two separate yet equally important groups.
The police who investigate crime
and the district attorneys who prosecute the offenders.
These are their stories.
The "these are their stories" part is really important.
Because a big selling point for "Law & Order"
is that, similar to "Dragnet",
it draws inspiration from real-life cases.
In fact, as Wolf recounts, when the network asked him,
"What's the Bible for the show?"
he said, "The front page of the New York Post.
No writers are going to do better than 'headless body found in topless bar.'"
Which is a catchy thing to say, but I'm not sure it's true.
"Assless corpse found at bottomless brunch."
There, I just did it.
And like Jack Webb in LA, Dick Wolf cultivated
a close behind-the-scenes relationship with the NYPD,
employing officers as consultants, and boasting about the access he had.
I've spent more time with cops than anybody who doesn't carry a badge.
When you meet people, you meet cops,
you meet whether it's Bill Bratton or Ray Kelly or Sheriff Baca,
there is a shared interest in putting bad guys away
and having cops, shown in a decent light.
I am kind of unabashedly pro-law enforcement.
Dick Wolf is the most enthusiastic chronicler of blue lives
since James Cameron.
And while not as formal as "Dragnet"'s arrangement,
"Law & Order" has similarly benefited from its relationship with the NYPD.
One writer who's worked on the show has said, "There was always the sense
that if we told stories that reflected too badly on the police,
the NYPD could make it very difficult for us to shoot in New York."
Which does make sense, doesn't it?
The NYPD is famously anti-shooting unless they're the ones doing it.
For as much as Dick Wolf
brags about how the show is written in shades of gray,
or how it'll show both sides of an issue,
there is one side that it's always on, and that's the police.
Because however flawed his characters may be,
they're all fundamentally pursuing justice,
and cops love being portrayed that way,
as actors on the show have attested over the years.
Police around the country, I must say, are big fans of the show
because they feel it's authentic.
A couple homicide cops came over to visit.
They just had wonderful things to say about the show,
and they said thank you and they were thanking me, which was weird.
They felt like they were being well-represented.
My favorite quote from the police is, "Keep making us look good",
which is a nice compliment.
They're very, very kind.
Yeah, I bet they are!
Although, for what it's worth, there is a pretty major difference
between "they feel it's authentic" and "they feel it makes them look good".
And it's the same difference between these two photos.
One is a mirror of reality, and the other is a lie.
And look, thanks to "Law & Order"'s close collaboration
with its police consultants,
the show does get a lot of smaller details right,
like specific laws, jargon, and crime scene procedures.
But crucially, it also makes a lot of choices
that significantly distort the big picture of policing.
For instance, most episodes arrest the right perpetrators at the midpoint,
and then convict them at the end.
And it's structured like that for obvious reasons,
it is a self-contained episode of TV,
and those need satisfying narrative arc fulfillment.
But as we know, in reality, not only do many cases simply go unsolved,
almost none of the ones that do get solved go to trial.
Prosecutors put massive pressure on defendants to take plea deals,
meaning that 97% of criminal cases don't go to trial.
And obviously, "Law & Order" cannot reflect that reality.
It would be unwatchable.
Nobody wants to watch a show where 97% of episodes
end with two lawyers striking a deal in a windowless room,
and then you get to watch the defendant serve six months,
then struggle to get a job at their local Jiffy Lube.
But the courtroom half of "Law & Order"
actually represents a significant departure from TV tradition.
Because historically, lawyer shows centered defense lawyers
like "Perry Mason", who tried to work against the system
as the underdog and free innocent people.
But "Law & Order" is different, and that is very much by design.
Dick Wolf has said, "I believed that the heroes
weren't the defense attorneys who were getting these scumbags off.
The heroes were the prosecutors."
And you can see that on his shows,
where defense attorneys are usually presented
as an impediment to convicting obviously guilty suspects,
and they're the target of lines like this!
If a cold chill just ran up your spine,
it's because a defense attorney just walked in here.
Defense attorneys distort the facts. They twist evidence.
I believe in monsters and things that go bump in the night, Jack.
May they rot in Hell, along with their attorneys.
The devil's errand boy, otherwise known as a defense attorney?
Couple of things there. One, yes, that is a post-"OC" Mischa Barton
doing some award-worthy eyebrow acting there.
But two, defense attorneys are a vital part of the justice system,
so it's a bit weird that "Law & Order" can sometimes go out of its way
to present them like the Babadook.
And you can absolutely justify those decisions by saying,
"Come on, they're making fiction, not a documentary.
Not everyone wants to watch hyper-realistic portrayals
of our ever-desiccating society".
And I do understand that.
But it's not just the portrayals of defense lawyers
where big editorial decisions are being made.
One study found that offenders on "Law & Order"
were disproportionately white, male, older,
and from the middle or upper classes.
Dick Wolf's explained his reasoning
for why the show's criminals skew that way, saying,
"There are no rich white guy pressure groups.
You can do anything you want to rich, white guys, and nobody cares."
And you can see why he might not want to make a show
in which his good-guy cops
are disproportionately targeting communities of color.
He wants people to like them.
But the result of all of these creative decisions
is that, instead of depicting a flawed system riddled with structural racism,
the show presents exceptionally competent cops,
working within a largely fair framework that mostly convicts white people.
And while it is true that they have occasionally done episodes
focusing on individual bad cops, or referenced real-world criticisms,
especially recently, with discussions of anti-police sentiment
sometimes being shoehorned into conversations,
in general, police reforms are often portrayed
by the main characters as at best a nuisance to them,
and at worst a threat to public safety.
16 murders over Fourth of July.
They cut back on the stop and searches, people start carrying.
You two had him yesterday, and you let him go?
There wasn't probable cause for an arrest.
You create probable cause. You push him around, you provoke him!
After Eric Garner and the stop-and-frisk lawsuits,
1PP's been very clear. Don't make a scene.
Like it or not, Nolan, the big bad police department is our partner.
And in case you haven't been paying attention, they're under attack.
Every decision, every arrest is scrutinized.
There are people trying to defund them, for God's sake.
And here you are, asking me to castrate them?
No! Scrutinizing arrests? How awful!
It's pretty telling that, even in this fictional universe,
basic police accountability
is treated as an equivalent to getting your balls cut off.
The best expression of the disparity between "Law & Order" and real life
is in its most popular spinoff, "SVU".
It is a show built on the appeal of having cops who will stop at nothing
to crack horrific cases. Cops like Elliott Stabler,
who, before getting a spinoff show, routinely did shit like this.
Sorry to keep you waiting.
I get a little clumsy around scumbag pedophiles.
- Why you gotta be so rough? - You got one good arm left to break.
I should put you in pigtails, you little bitch.
I want you to cry for me. Come on, tell me!
Come on! Cry for me!
I don't know what the hell you're talking about.
Do you think I am some dumb cop?
You think you're smarter than me? You're gonna need a morgue, pal.
Leave Will Arnett alone!
I admit, as a viewer, it is something to see Stabler chew up the scenery
and spit it out directly into Matthew Modine's face.
Is it the model of good police behavior? Absolutely not.
Is it compelling to watch? For sure it is.
Is it hot? Reasonable people can disagree.
But generally, the thesis on "SVU"
is that the cops deeply care about getting justice for victims,
and their gut instincts mean that they almost always get the job done.
In one episode, we learn that Stabler has a 97% case closure rate,
and people love this show.
Christopher Meloni is the internet's zaddy, and you can see why.
His ass alone is a pop culture icon.
And Mariska Hargitay has a huge cult following, too.
Fans have tattoos of her,
Taylor Swift has a cat named for her character, Olivia Benson,
and there are even TikToks like this.
Diddle you when you were a kid? Daddy's little girl?
This my shit, all the girls stomp your feet like this.
I've been around that track, so it's not gonna happen like that,
'cause I ain't no hollaback girl.
I think I've made my position on police brutality pretty clear.
But even I will admit,
it is hard to resist the sight of Olivia Benson
slamming an asshole's head on a table to the beat of "Hollaback Girl".
In which case, go off, girlboss! Lean in to state-sponsored violence!
There is something incredibly appealing about the idea of a world
where survivors of sexual assault are taken seriously by the police.
Hargitay's spoken openly about some of the show's positive real-world impacts.
I have so many times
encountered people that have said because of this show
they knew what to do after their assault.
Because of this show, they had a rape kit done.
Because of the show, they reported and had faith in that.
And because of the show, most of all, they didn't feel alone anymore.
And to me, when I started hearing those stories
is when I knew that it wasn't just a TV show anymore.
It was so much more.
That is obviously genuinely moving.
And I don't doubt the show is doing important work for some of its viewers,
in between, that is, showing her slamming a suspect's face into a table
like she's a toddler making two Barbies kiss.
And to her real credit,
Mariska Hargitay has tried to parlay her fame into advocacy,
founding an organization which advocates
for survivors of sexual assault, domestic abuse, and child abuse.
But if, as Hargitay says,
the show encourages people to avail themselves of this system,
it is worth knowing what that system can look like in practice.
Because it's not good.
Government and press reports have repeatedly shown
that New York's actual sex crimes unit
is set up to fail victims of sexual assault.
And its case closure rate is a long way from Elliot Stabler's fictitious 97%.
The NYPD's official figures
show that they only close about a third of sexual assault cases.
But one analysis of cases handled over a two-year period
found they had a closure rate of just 6%.
Also, a damning 2018 investigation quoted multiple prosecutors
describing improper handling of cases
by overloaded or inexperienced investigators,
who until recently were only given "5 days of specialized training".
Is it any wonder that some cops are watching "SVU" for tips?
Which honestly may not be a bad thing
when you get justice crusader Olivia Benson,
but it gets a little hairy when you get Use of Excessive Force Zaddy here.
And while the NYPD insists that they've since improved staffing and training,
the DOJ recently announced their own investigation,
citing reports that the unit's officers were
"failing to conduct basic investigative steps
and instead shaming and abusing survivors
and re-traumatizing them during investigations."
And yet, the portrait "SVU" paints of the division
is so convincing that when a new commander took it over in 2020,
and did an interview discussing that scathing internal report I mentioned,
here is how the anchor wrapped up their conversation.
I ask this because I'm obsessed with the TV show "Law & Order: SVU".
How real is the TV show to real life?
I can tell you this, the dedication you see on TV with the investigators,
that's the same dedication that we have within the real special victims unit
and the cases are very, very similar.
As heinous as you see them on TV, we are seeing the same thing in real life.
So many of them are ripped from the headlines.
What are you doing? Why stop your fawning there? Just keep it going!
"Are you really as cool as you seem on TV?
Do you make the car go wee-woo even when it doesn't need to go wee-woo?
Is Ice-T nice? I follow him on Twitter!"
And it's worth knowing, some survivors have spoken
about what it is like seeing these detectives valorized on TV,
with one saying, "'Law & Order: SVU' gave me the false impression
that this squad cared deeply about victims and their jobs",
and another saying, "If I had a dollar for every time I heard,
'This can't be true. Olivia Benson would never let this happen,'
I would have enough
to cover my hospital bills and therapy for my trauma."
And you should know, even the real-world inspiration
for the tenacious, uncompromising Olivia Benson,
and the show's tough ADA, Alexandra Cabot, has a significant asterisk,
because an early model for both characters was Linda Fairstein,
the woman now infamous for prosecuting the Central Park Five,
or as they're now known, the Exonerated Five.
And I will say, some behind the show are keenly aware
of its role in perpetuating a false narrative about police.
In fact, in 2020, at the peak of the Black Lives Matter protests,
Warren Leight reflected on the role that the show plays
in our discussion of policing.
So, individually, am I contributing, mis-contributing to society?
I don't know. Collectively, are we? Yeah.
So, how do you, what do you do? Can you go into the network?
I have pitched the… by the way,
every writer has pitched the Innocence Project series to the networks.
I've made that pitch. I bet it has a better chance of going now.
Within the Dick Wolf "Law & Order" universe,
it won't be likely that they're going to do a show that reveals,
that bases itself on cops behaving illegal.
That's not part of Dick's brand.
Exactly! Even if the people working on the show,
the actors, the writers, and the showrunners,
have really good intentions about correcting the record,
there is only so much they can do.
"Law & Order" is never going to grapple
with the reality of policing in a meaningful way,
for the same reasons that Daniel Tiger won't do it.
It's never gonna happen, and honestly, you'd be weirded out if it ever did.
Because fundamentally, the person who is responsible
for "Law & Order" and its brand, is Dick Wolf.
And he knows exactly what he wants he wants his shows to do,
and, importantly, not to do.
Here he is invoking one of the most notorious cases
of police abuse in New York City,
Abner Louima, who was beaten by NYPD officers and sodomized in 1997.
We're not there to do Abner Louima.
That's a terrible thing that happened
but that represents one or two bad apples
in a police force of 35 000 people.
We're certainly, I think the show, over the last…
all three shows are probably the best recruiting poster
you could have for being a New York City cop.
Right. Because a recruiting poster is always going to be
a propagandized, hero-washed version of the truth.
A truth which is more often than not, very ugly.
And for the 300th time, I know "Law & Order" is just a TV show.
I know it's meant to be entertainment.
And honestly, I'm not even telling you not to watch it.
It's completely fine to enjoy it,
and it's completely understandable to want Olivia Benson to exist.
But it is important to remember just how far it is
from representing anything resembling reality.
As one critic of "Law & Order" has put it,
"If a medical show was giving us inaccurate information,
we would say it's dangerous."
Which is true, because think about it.
"Grey's Anatomy" doesn't depict what happens inside an actual hospital.
Those doctors are ridiculously hot, none of them are nearly tired enough,
and it needs about 5 000% more discussion of insurance.
But if those medical professionals were routinely claiming
that vaccines cause autism and herbal remedies cure cancer,
we'd probably be having a conversation about it.
Because that's essentially what "Law & Order" is doing.
It's presenting a world where the cops can always figure out who did it,
defense attorneys are irritating obstacles to be overcome,
and even if a cop roughs up a suspect, it's all in pursuit of a just outcome.
And it blasts that fantasy at you in endless reruns and marathons,
in the guise of very well-produced, extremely entertaining TV.
But underneath it all, it is a commercial,
and a commercial produced by a man who is, in his words,
"unabashedly pro-law enforcement", and he is very good at selling things.
And in this instance, he's selling a complete fantasy
that many people in this country are only too happy to buy.
Which is fine, as long as we don't lose sight
of the fact that it's an ad for a defective product.
Because, if I may quote one last time
from the Library of Alexandria that is Ice-T's Twitter account,
"You gotta know who the F you're dealing with. Could be the cops."
That's our show. Thank you so much for watching.
And given tonight's story, there's only one way to end this,
and it's like this!